Microbiology

Variations in Cell Surface ACE2 Levels Alter Direct Binding of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein and Viral Infectivity: Implications for Measuring Spike Protein Interactions with Animal ACE2 Orthologs

1. Soheila Kazemi
2. Alberto Domingo López-Muñoz
3. Jaroslav Hollý
4. Ling Jin
5. Jonathan W. Yewdell
6. Brian P. Dolan

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Toxoplasma bradyzoites exhibit physiological plasticity of calcium and energy stores controlling motility and egress

1. Yong Fu
2. Kevin M Brown
3. Nathaniel G Jones
4. Silvia NJ Moreno
5. L David Sibley

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The cyst-forming stages of Toxoplasma gondii that perpetuate chonic infections in more than a quarter of the world's human population exist in a metabolically quiescent state. This study provides evidence that metabolic quiescence in bradyzoite cysts is associated with a profound dampening of calcium signalling, including uptake and release from internal stores, which is reversed following bradyzoite egress and exposure to exogenous calcium and carbon sources.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Updated vaccine protects from infection with SARS-CoV-2 variants, prevents transmission and is immunogenic against Omicron in hamsters

1. Sapna Sharma
2. Thomas Vercruysse
3. Lorena Sanchez-Felipe
4. Winnie Kerstens
5. Madina Rasulova
6. Rana Abdelnabi
7. Caroline S Foo
8. Viktor Lemmens
9. Dominique Van Looveren
10. Piet Maes
11. Guy Baele
12. Birgit Weynand
13. Philippe Lemey
14. Johan Neyts
15. Hendrik Jan Thibaut
16. Kai Dallmeier

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Inhibition of SAR S-CoV-2 infection and replication by lactoferrin, MUC1 and α-lactalbumin identified in human breastmilk

1. Xinyuan Lai
2. Yanying Yu
3. Wei Xian
4. Fei Ye
5. Xiaohui Ju
6. Yuqian Luo
7. Huijun Dong
8. Yihua Zhou
9. Wenjie Tan
10. Hui Zhuang
11. Tong Li
12. Xiaoyun Liu
13. Qiang Ding
14. Kuanhui Xiang

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Ribonucleotide reductase, a novel drug target for gonorrhea

1. Jana Narasimhan
2. Suzanne Letinski
3. Stephen P Jung
4. Aleksey Gerasyuto
5. Jiashi Wang
6. Michael Arnold
7. Guangming Chen
8. Jean Hedrick
9. Melissa Dumble
10. Kanchana Ravichandran
11. Talya Levitz
12. Chang Cui
13. Catherine L Drennan
14. JoAnne Stubbe
15. Gary Karp
16. Arthur Branstrom

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper is of interest to biochemists and those focused on development of novel antibiotics. The authors present two small molecules that specifically target the essential ribonucleotide reductase of the causative agent of gonorrhea, with biochemical, biophysical, and biological data supporting the efficacy of these molecules both in vitro and in mouse models. Overall, this is a comprehensive study providing some interesting insights to guide the development of new therapies for malaria.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Extracellular electron transfer increases fermentation in lactic acid bacteria via a hybrid metabolism

1. Sara Tejedor-Sanz
2. Eric T Stevens
3. Siliang Li
4. Peter Finnegan
5. James Nelson
6. Andre Knoesen
7. Samuel H Light
8. Caroline M Ajo-Franklin
9. Maria L Marco

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The metabolic, genetic, genomic, and electrochemical experiments described for lactic acid bacteria expand on the recent discovery of extracellular electron transfer in Gram Positive bacteria. The ability to shift and/or accelerate metabolism of lactic acid bacteria capable of extracellular electron transfer may have interesting biotechnological applications, but to what extent this impacts their native physiology is not yet clear.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Pan-genome analysis identifies intersecting roles for Pseudomonas specialized metabolites in potato pathogen inhibition

1. Alba Pacheco-Moreno
2. Francesca L Stefanato
3. Jonathan J Ford
4. Christine Trippel
5. Simon Uszkoreit
6. Laura Ferrafiat
7. Lucia Grenga
8. Ruth Dickens
9. Nathan Kelly
10. Alexander DH Kingdon
11. Liana Ambrosetti
12. Sergey A Nepogodiev
13. Kim C Findlay
14. Jitender Cheema
15. Martin Trick
16. Govind Chandra
17. Graham Tomalin
18. Jacob G Malone
19. Andrew W Truman

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This work uses large-scale genome sequencing and analysis, mass spectrometry and bioassays to investigate the genomic diversity of Pseudomonas strains and their potential role in plant protection. The authors identified a novel group of cyclic lipopeptides that could inhibit Streptomyces scabies, the causal agent of potato scab, and showed how genomic diversity in closely related bacterial strains can contribute to plant pathogen suppression in the field.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

aCPSF1 cooperates with terminator U-tract to dictate archaeal transcription termination efficacy

1. Jie Li
2. Lei Yue
3. Zhihua Li
4. Wenting Zhang
5. Bing Zhang
6. Fangqing Zhao
7. Xiuzhu Dong

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study presents new evidence that support a model of aCPSF1-dependent transcription termination in Archaea. Archaeal transcription termination is shown to rely on both poly-U tract terminator signals and the endoribonuclease aCPSF1 of the β-CASP family. This mechanism resembles the eukaryal RNAP II termination process. These new insights fill a gap in our understanding of the mechanism of transcription termination in Archaea and they are of general importance for the RNA biology community.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

A bacterial derived plant- mimicking cytokinin hormone regulates social behaviour in a rice pathogen

1. Sohini Deb
2. Chandan Kumar
3. Rahul Kumar
4. Amandeep Kaur
5. Palash Ghosh
6. Gopaljee Jha
7. Prabhu B. Patil
8. Subhadeep Chatterjee
9. Hitendra K. Patel
10. Ramesh V. Sonti

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The major finding of this manuscript is that cytokinin produced by a bacterial plant pathogen affects bacterial growth and physiology. Production of cytokinin is linked to the well-known type three effector XopQ, which has primarily been studied for its function inside plant cells. The authors provide evidence that XopQ is required for the pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae to produce cytokinin in culture, and that cytokinin production controls whether or not the bacterium engages in planktonic growth or biofilm formation (i.e., biofilms form in the absence of cytokinin). These data indicate that bacterially produced cytokinins affect bacterial physiology, indicating that these hormones control signaling beyond photosynthetic organisms. The findings are of interest both to those studying plant-pathogen interactions and to microbiologists in general.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Post-entry, spike-dependent replication advantage of B.1.1.7 and B.1.617.2 over B.1 SARS-CoV-2 in an ACE2-deficient human lung cell line

1. Daniela Niemeyer
2. Simon Schroeder
3. Kirstin Friedmann
4. Friderike Weege
5. Jakob Trimpert
6. Anja Richter
7. Saskia Stenzel
8. Jenny Jansen
9. Jackson Emanuel
10. Julia Kazmierski
11. Fabian Pott
12. Lara M. Jeworowski
13. Ruth Olmer
14. Mark-Christian Jaboreck
15. Beate Tenner
16. Jan Papies
17. Julian Heinze
18. Felix Walper
19. Marie L. Schmidt
20. Nicolas Heinemann
21. Elisabeth Möncke-Buchner
22. Talitha Veith
23. Morris Baumgardt
24. Karen Hoffmann
25. Marek Widera
26. Tran Thi Nhu Thao
27. Anita Balázs
28. Jessica Schulze
29. Christin Mache
30. Markus Morkel
31. Sandra Ciesek
32. Leif G. Hanitsch
33. Marcus A. Mall
34. Andreas C. Hocke
35. Volker Thiel
36. Klaus Osterrieder
37. Thorsten Wolff
38. Ulrich Martin
39. Victor M. Corman
40. Marcel A. Müller
41. Christine Goffinet
42. Christian Drosten

Reviewed by ScreenIT